


His Aunt Learned to Bake

by Amalthea_Oberon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-26 12:37:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6239626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amalthea_Oberon/pseuds/Amalthea_Oberon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily survives Oct. 31, 1981 and opens a muggle Bakery, leaving behind the world that both gave and took everything from her.</p>
<p>This is Dudley's side of the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Aunt Learned to Bake

**Author's Note:**

> I would highly suggest reading lizardcookie's Oneshot first as this in response to it and references it a lot.  
> URL: http://lizardcookie.tumblr.com/post/132218245948/she-learns-to-bake
> 
> Also posted to my Tumblr: https://amalthea-oberon.tumblr.com/post/134740010608/his-aunt-learned-to-bake

Dudley grows up loved and spoiled. But every once in awhile he hears his mum talk about a woman named Lily, her no-good, terrible husband who doesn’t deserve to be named because _how could he have taken her sister into that world and gotten her pregnant and then died and gotten their son, Harry, killed_.

He’s 10 years old and his curiosity gets the better of him - he asks his mum who they are and she gets both angry and sad and can’t answer him for a long time.

But then she tells him. How there really is a thing called magic. How her sister got a letter when she was 11 and how she went to a place called Hogwarts to learn how to cast spells and brew potions and how she was _so jealous_. How Lily met a handsome devil with wild hair who drove her crazy and swept her off her feet. And how she eventually married that man.

How they got married and had a son, Harry.

And how, on Halloween, at the age of 21, her family was targeted by a group of people who thought that muggle-born witches and wizards shouldn’t exist and shouldn’t be allowed to practice magic.

She told Dudley how she beloved son and her wretched husband got killed.

She told Dudley how Lily killed their murderer.

And how she had never been the same and never again would be.

Dudley is both in awe of and _terrified_ by that world. That world of magic, where all things are possible. Where all his childhood dreams could come true.

He could never tell his mum that the day he learned about his aunt was the day that he had fallen in love with magic.

Dudley at age 11, secretly _hoping_ that his letter would come. But he was also _terrified_ . Because if he got his letter, his mum would be absolutely _petrified_ because what happened to Lily could happen to him.

But his letter never came. And when he went to bed that night, he cried. Oh how he _cried_. Because magic was real, but he couldn’t have it.

Dudley at 19. Falling in love with a gorgeous girl and getting married.

Dudley at 20. A father.

Dudley at 21 on Halloween night. Staying by his son’s bed. He had nightmares of the same thing that happened to Lily happening to him.

Dudley at 23. A father again, but this time to a beautiful daughter.

Dudley at 31 on his son’s 11th birthday. An owl came with _the_ letter. He was both proud, excited, and _petrified_. He understood his mum now. He had children of his own. And they were the dearest thing to him in the entire universe.

Dudley calling his mum in a panic, telling her the news.

Dudley begging his mum for a way to find Lily. Because she is the _only_ one who can help him. The _only_ one who he can turn to for help and for knowledge of that world he barely knows.

Lily is the _only_ one who truly understands his fear and can console him.

Petunia doesn’t want him to know. She doesn’t want him to allow her grandchildren to go to that awful place and learn that treacherous magic that killed her sister.

But she knows he won’t give in. So she gives him the name of her bakery.

A day goes by.

A week.

A month.

September 1st is coming nearer. And so he bucks up the courage to visit a humble little bakery run by a humble little women. Her red hair was tied up in a bun, grey hairs starting to show. Her clothes crisply clean, though in slight disarray as if she hadn’t put in the effort to straighten them out when she got dressed that morning. Her smile was warm and welcoming with a subtle weariness that the years bring.

But her eyes.

Her eyes were a hundred times older than she was. They bespoke of hardships, sorrow, and pain beyond measure. But they were _uncommonly kind_.

In the corner sat noticed a black mutt, watching him with eyes that were almost too human. At the counter there sat a man with scars covering his face nursing a cup of tea, his eyes almost too empty to be alive. They seemed to belong to the little bakery as much as Lily did.

Her shop is full of people. People who need help, or a kind word. People who wanted the comfort of a smile and kind eyes. People who simply wanted to be around her.

He wandered around, looking from bread to pastry, killing time until they were the only ones left. But the dog and the man stayed. So he simply bought his son’s favorite pastry.

_And who is this for?_ she asked.

_My son. His 11th birthday was a month ago._

_Is that so? Was it special? Was it everything you wanted it to be?_

_It was more than that._

A pause. A question on his lips. A fear in his heart.

_I’m Dudley, by the way. Dudley Dursley_.

_Nice to meet you. I’m Lily_.

She didn’t recognize him. Had no idea who he was. And that hurt more than he could have ever guessed.

_I have no right to trouble a woman who doesn't know me with my problems. She has had enough pain in her life. She’s left that world behind_.

So he buys his pastry and leaves still just as worried as when he first came in. Maybe even more so.

Dudley at King’s Cross Station taking his son to Platform 9 ¾. His mum refused to come.

Dudley holding his wife’s hand and carrying his young daughter on his hip as they watch that gloriously red engine pulling out of the station.

Dudley worried about what the year might bring and what the future might throw at them.

His son comes home for the holidays and _oh what a marvelous time I had_ and _oh what I’ve learned_ . And slowly, Dudley’s eyes are opened to the _wonders_ of that magical world.

His mum never speaks to him again. _How could you send your child to that same, awful place that took everything from my sister?_ But it wasn’t his choice to make - it was his son’s. So Dudley slowly learns more about the wizarding world and more about the man called Voldemort. He learns about his followers and how he fell.

He learns about the rat who had betrayed his friends.

Dudley realizing that Lily was a hero - but at a terrible cost.

Dudley trying to explain it all to his mum.

But Petunia is too hurt and too old and too stubborn to listen. _You’re a fool!_ she says. _That’s just propaganda they’re feeding you. It’s all lies!_ But he knows better. So he lets her think what she will, because he knows he can’t change it. And he’s sad, because she never loves his son like he wants her too.

She’s too afraid of losing one more thing to this world of wonder. This world of pain.

But Dudley learns to love the world his son was now a part of - the same world he had always wanted. He learns to put aside his fears and takes everything with open eyes and an open heart.

As the years went on, he would visit Lily’s bakery, always buying things on the pretense of a celebration. Lily came to recognize him by name. But she never knew who he was.

He often wondered about her - about how she would react if she found out he was her nephew, about the golden locket that she wore but looked like it hadn’t been opened in year, about the man with the scars and the empty eyes who never looked at him, and the dog with the all too-human eyes that always seemed to watch him.

His son grew up. His daughter too. She never got a letter, but she didn’t mind. She prefered science over magic. And he still loves her just the same as his son because she was his child and how could he ever not love her?

Dudley still finds excuses to visit the bakery - it’s the day he met his wife, the day his son said his first word, the day his daughter learned to walk, the days he first found out he was going to be a grandfather.

He found sad reasons too - it’s the day his mum stopped talking to him, the day his dad died, the day his mum died, the day his wife left him.

He was still greeted with the same sad, pained, uncommonly kind eyes and the same warm, aged smile.

The dog lived for a long time. Too long, really. But Dudley just assumed magic was somehow involved.

But one day the dog wasn’t there.

And he never did saw the man with the empty eyes again.

And Dudley could tell - Lily had become lonely. Her pain and sorrow turned to emptiness.

And he could do nothing about it. So he still came to visit - still found excuses to come by, to keep her company. He found ways to make her smile. But he could never make her laugh. She was too sad to laugh. Had been too sad to laugh for far too long.

And then one day, when his children’s children started getting letters of their own, he came to the bakery. The door was open, but no one was there to greet him. And through the kitchen door behind the counter he could see Lily’s hand, the warn locket resting open her palm.

He rushed to her side. For the first time in what he was sure was over 50 years, she smiled. Not one of the courteous smiles she always had. But a _real smile_. She looked at peace - the signs of sorrow, pain, tragedy, and loneliness had left her face.

He picked up the locket. Inside was a picture laughing of a man with hair too wild to be natural. _That must be…_ His mum never had told him his name. And now he would never know. Waving up at him was a boy with her eyes and his hair. _Harry_. And resting inside was a magnificent wedding ring befitting a queen and a lock of crazy black hair tied with a gold ribbon.

Dudley at 70, clenched the locket in one hand and held his aunt - who he had loved but who had never known him - in his arms.

And he wept.

He wept for the life she lost, for the people she loved but had left her too soon.

He wept for the empty man and the human dog because no one else seemed to mourn their absence.

He wept for the woman he never got to know - the woman who had died on Halloween 70 years ago with her son and her husband and their murderer.

But most of all, he wept for the life that could have been - for the family he never had, for the memories that were never made, for the love that was never felt.

He orchestrated the sale of the bakery she had owned to a family with laughing children, happy smiles, and kind eyes. He had it re-opened it under her name.

He still found reasons to visit - the day he became a great-grandfather, the day his great-grandchildren got their letters, the day Lily had died. But it was never quite the same.

And one day, he stopped coming altogether.


End file.
